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Home » Disasters and blame in Iran

Disasters and blame in Iran

The New Neo Posted on by

I thought of adding this as an addendum to my previous post today. But then I decided it deserved the emphasis of a post of its own.

Some Iranian history:

…[I]t was another tragedy, one of the biggest terrorist attacks ever, with a lot of lies behind it that helped bring the Ayatollah Khomeini and his minions to power. Many Americans are not even aware of it…

From Bloomberg:

“On the night of Aug. 18, 1978, a fire broke out at a cinema in Abadan, close to the border with Iraq. The conflagration claimed anywhere from 420-470 lives, and it was quickly clear that the fire was no accident. The government of the Shah, already feeling the effects of widespread popular discontent, blamed Marxist terrorists.

“The opposition, led by the exiled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, blamed the Shah’s much-feared intelligence agency. The movie being screened, “The Deer,” was a thinly-veiled critique of the economic distress felt by most Iranians, and the widespread corruption of the Shah’s government. Years would pass before the truth of the burning of Cinema Rex came to light: The arsonists had been Khomeini loyalists, inspired by the cleric’s contempt for cinema as an instrument of Western decadence. It is now acknowledged as one of the deadliest acts of terrorism ever.

But in the immediate aftermath of the fire, Iranians widely blamed the Shah’s regime, and Cinema Rex became a rallying cry for nationwide protests. In the months that followed, these grew in size and frequency, leading eventually to the unrest that forced the Shah to flee — and ushered in the Islamic Republic.”

The Khomeini terrorists barred the exits so people couldn’t get out and set the building ablaze, so many burned alive or suffocated. Many were women and children, infuriating the public…

Western mainstream media “instantly and foolishly” fell for it all and blamed the Shah for the fire, according to the Times of Israel. Carter administration officials were completely taken in. The U.S. ambassador to Iran, William Sullivan, referred to Khomeini as a “Gandhi-like figure” and the U.S. Ambassador to the UN at the time, Andrew Young, said, “Khomeini will eventually be hailed as a saint”!

I wrote this post nine years ago about the incident.

Comments

Disasters and blame in Iran — 27 Comments

  2. Now there are claims that they got the wrong guy.

    https://www.redstate.com/nick-arama/2020/01/14/what-the-heck-iran-claims-to-have-arrested-the-guy-whose-video-exposed-they-shot-down-the-plane/

    ?Nariman
    ?
    Verified account

    @NarimanGharib
    …
    I’m asking @JustinTrudeau and @CanadaFP to step into this situation and ask Iranian officials to release the WRONG folks they have in custody. My source who is a HERO is safe. also why they need to arrest this person?!
    #PS752 ?Nariman added,
    Josie Ensor
    Verified account

    @Josiensor
    Hold your horses. @NarimanGharib, who was originally sent the video by the source, says that to the best of his knowledge the news of his arrest is not true. https://twitter.com/NarimanGharib/status/1217049972253831169 …
    Show this thread
    5:56 AM – 14 Jan 2020

  4. Interesting comments at Neo’s old post.
    Too bad the politicians and newshounds don’t read them!

    Artfldgr on February 14, 2011 at 1:13 pm said:
    makes it easier to hide the repetitions of history of [if] key parts are left out… its the larger idea not the smaller one. its not that its a fire, in this kind of building, its that its a crisis of a certain kind which then can be used a certain way. a tool.

    SteveH on February 13, 2011 at 6:16 am said:
    Isn’t the media every day filled with little reichstag attempts? These will grow and i don’t think anyone who reads this blog doubts it or holds any confidence they wont work with the current state of our citizenry.

    Ymarsakar on February 13, 2011 at 11:51 am said:
    Khomeini was condemned to death but General Hassan Pakravan felt that his execution would anger the common people of Iran. [a quote]

    Save one life, get rid of thousands of others in the future.

    His mistake is in his calculation that “evil” happens because people get “angry” or “upset”. No, evil happens because evil master minds make it happen. It doesn’t just grow like storm clouds, naturally in time. Evil takes work. While destruction is easier and more timely than creation, it still takes work.

    It doesn’t matter who it angers. All that matters is whether it is the right thing to do. And if it isn’t right then, maybe it’ll be right some years later.

    Richard Saunders on February 14, 2011 at 7:21 pm said:
    In the animated movie “Persopolis,” written and directed by an Iranian, she makes the point that under the Shah there were 3,000 political prisoners, while under the mullahs there are 300,000.
    Plus the people they are arresting now.

  5. AesopFan:

    In 2006 I wrote this post about that General Pakravan incident.

    Interesting fact: Pakravan was one of the first people Khomeini had killed when Khomeini came to power.

  6. While on the topic of the blame game, Dyer disputes the Dems’ narrative.

    The ‘9/10’ mindset: Media flog theme that threat from Soleimani planning was not ‘imminent’ By J.E. Dyer January 14, 2020

    Although I don’t think the American people are buying it, it’s worth noting the effort the mainstream media are putting into a surging theme that President Trump “lied” about the justification for striking Qasem Soleimani and the group of henchmen he was meeting with in Iraq on 3 January 2020.

    The media are coming up with various suggestions as to why the threat from Soleimani wasn’t really “imminent.” The focus has been on a reported lack of specifics as to when and where attacks would occur; …

    Aside from any other consideration, this theme is senseless because taking the senior planner out in a strike isn’t the main way you would address a threat for which you have very specific information. Striking a Soleimani directly is never the measure of how imminent one of his planned operations was. The premise of the media’s thinking process (to apply that term loosely) is flawed.
    …
    With an actor like Soleimani, as with one like Osama bin Laden or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, you strike when you have the opportunity and operational justification. Notice I didn’t say the “intelligence” justification. Using intelligence on the other guy’s plans for justification implies being impelled by his timeline and his agenda.

    An operational justification is about your own strategic priorities. That doesn’t mean that with any specific action, you’re going to a comprehensively offensive posture. It does mean you’re not waiting for the opponent to twitch according to a checklist before you do something that’s strategically necessary.

    If you have general intelligence that the individual is ramping up his activities, that may increase the operational urgency of any effort to track him down and take him out.
    …
    Before 9/11/2001, U.S. intelligence had information that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were planning something big, presumably against U.S. interests. U.S. military forces were on “terror threat” alert in the Middle East, because the history at that time was of terror attacks like what bin Laden seemed to have in mind being launched (or planned) principally against our armed forces in the region.

    Americans learned later that general warning signs had been noted by senior Bush administration officials at several earlier points in 2001.

    But before 9/11, “precisely when and precisely where” were exactly the specifics we didn’t have. *

    In the absence of such specifics, Adam Schiff, other politicians, and the mainstream media of 2020 would apparently have insisted on 9/10/2001 that there was no imminent threat coming from Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

    But manifestly, there was an imminent threat. The warning we had of it was non-specific, but it was 100% valid.

    *Leaving aside the discussion that the dots were there to be connected, but nobody in authority did.

  7. BTW – although there are some active military (discretely leaking) and veterans (loudly clamoring; Gabbard, for instance) complaining about the killing of Soleimani — because Orange Man Bad, not with any persuasive argument — I suspect President Trump just sewed up the overseas GI vote, assuming there was anyone on the fence after the last three years.
    Anybody have an ear to the ground there?

    Authentic supporter of the troops, or pandering?
    IMO, Door #1, but if anyone on the left thinks to remark on it, they will certainly go with Door #2.

  8. Blaming the authorities for some problem is how democracies get better authorities. This system can be gamed by anti-authority folk creating a problem and then blaming authorities.

    How about arson for Australian fires, with 24 people arrested?
    https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/australia/item/34556-those-climate-change-fires-in-australia-many-of-them-were-set-by-arsonists

    In the USA, “Fast and Furious” was the Obama criminals helping drug cartels get guns which were used in crimes, including killing an American, so as to blame “guns” and in support of gun control.

    There have been numerous hoaxes, like the Jussie Smollett lynch hoax, which were designed and carried out in order to hurt Trump.

    There will almost certainly be more hoax crimes against Reps in the coming months.

    It’s even possible that whatever happens in Iran, some “side” will gain — and it was folk on that side which shot down the airline.

  9. Lee Smith goes after Obummer’s nuke deal, see
    https://www.Tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/296902/obama-passed-the-buck-Trump-refused-to-play :

    “The Iran deal was never meant to stop Iran from building a bomb— it was supposed to delay it, until disaster happened on someone else’s watch….

    … Former Bush administration Senior Director for the Middle East Michael Doran said on Twitter he had knowledge of messages from the Obama administration to Soleimani. “We don’t know the subject matter of the messages,” Doran told Tablet, “but given the tenor of Obama’s letters to [Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei, it is a reasonable assumption that the administration wrote to Soleimani to court him rather than to deter him.” A senior U.S. official confirmed to Tablet the existence of the messages from the Obama administration to Soleimani….”

  10. Three years of Trump accused of being Putin’s puppet, but will we see those same “news” outlets devote 10 mins to Obama treasonously underwriting the world’s most dangerous terror master? Of course not.

  12. It is not the first time that history has been completly rewritten. The 2002 “Coup Attempt” against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, that nearly every account describes as “U.S. backed”, was actually a popular rebellion in which the military refused to carry out orders to kill protesters. Virtually everyone, including the U.S., was taken by surprise by those events. Chavez was restored to power by the military because of how badly the unprepared Opposition handled the transition.

  13. I think I am a brave man. I have always been scared of being burned alive. I grew up a Coast Guard brat. My dad got Navy benefits. I grew up in the Vietnam era. The passageways were lined with the horribly burned.

    USS Forestal anyone? USS Forest Fire?

    And as quick as I could I joined what I always figured was the family business. The sea services. A nice fit for a family of Italian fishermen.

    How my dad didn’t end up a red smear on a white USCG hull I will never know.

    The point? Yes there is a point. It seems to be common knowledge, also known as ignorance in circulation, that war is when old men like me send young men out to fight. 1 do not know if I am still any good. But I do not want to send anyone to fight in my place.

    I said I believe myself to be a brave man. I never claimed to be a smart man.

  16. Richard Grenell, twitter (video at link): Supreme Leader’s spokesmullah gives sermon yesterday, finds blame in students who refused to walk on US and Israeli flags as a “Fifth Column” in the otherwise pure Persian midst, as well a harsh judgement of the UK Ambassador who, says the spokesmullah, ought to be “chopped into pieces”.

    Nice.

    Kinda like James O’Keefe’s Bernieworker dude’s attitude toward fellow Americans he judges to be “Nazis”, no? Only this cat speaks with authority in hand.

  17. I remember the day the Mullahs shot Neda Agha Soltan. They didn’t personally do it. They don’t do their own dirty work.

    I remember the day the Mullahs seized power. My Iranian friends kept saying, “Those b**t***s. Those b**t***’.”

    I learned my dislike for the Mullahs from my Iranian friends. Yes. I have Iranian friends.

    In case anyone might think I am a johnny come lately to the cause I have one word. Zurkineh.

  20. At least two presenters working for the Iranian state broadcaster IRIB have announced they have quit their jobs, with a third saying she quit some time ago after having told lies on behalf of the state for 13 years.

    Ahmad Alam-al-hoda, Imam of Friday prayers and representative of the Iranian supreme leader says those people who avoid walking on US and Israel flags are spy and deserve of killing. He also has some suggestions about UK ambassador in #Iran. ? https://twitter.com/radiojibi/status/1217503626186448898 …

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1217523047990726657

  21. Now it appears two missiles were shot at the Ukrainian airliner, about 30 seconds apart.
    The ayatollahs wanted to be sure no one suffered.

  22. A few days back Iranian and Mullah are mourning QS death, Iranian media showing a mass of Iranians follows the QS funeral and buried of QS body parts in his home town KAmarn.

    The news just comes now that Iran protesters tear down Qasem Soleimani posters and chant anti-government slogans as riots escalate over downed jet??

    Very laughable matter?

    Whats going on under Mullah fingerprint?

  23. All it takes for Evil to triumph is for good men (England, France and Germany) to do nothing.

  24. Iran fired TWO missiles at the Ukrainian plane.
    Not really new, but I only saw a couple of references to this in other reading today (1/15).
    Why wasn’t it better known at the time?
    Pam Geller had it on Jan 10. The Times didn’t come out with it until 1/14.

    NYT story is behind their paywall; Geller’s was the only other report that I could find on my search’s page 1. She links Daily Mail, so I’ll quote from them.
    The Mail claimed from the beginning that there were 2 missiles, but I don’t remember anyone else making that point in their coverage.
    Did I just miss it??

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/14/world/iran-plane-crash-video.html

    https://gellerreport.com/2020/01/iran-fire-2-missiles-downed-plane.html/
    By Pamela Geller – on January 10, 2020

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7871397/Airlines-turn-Iranian-airspace-West-said-Tehran-DID-shoot-Ukrainian-flight.html

    By DANYAL HUSSAIN and TIM STICKINGS FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 20:48 EST, 9 January 2020 | UPDATED: 07:58 EST, 10 January 2020
    Iran fired two missiles at the Ukrainian passenger jet which crashed near Tehran and killed 176 people, it is believed.

    Satellite data detected two surface-to-air missiles being launched just minutes after the Boeing 737 took off, the US government says.

    It is believed that Iran may have shot the plane down unintentionally, possibly mistaking it for a military jet just hours after Tehran had attacked US bases in Iraq.

    Footage which emerged last night showed the Ukrainian International Airlines jet exploding in mid-air after it was hit, killing all 167 passengers and nine crew on board.

    Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson have all blamed Iran for the downing of the plane as Western governments rejected Tehran’s claims of a technical failure.

    Iran called the Western claims a ‘big lie’ and ‘psychological warfare’ in a fresh burst of angry rhetoric, after its relatively inconsequential strikes on US bases had sparked hopes that Middle East tensions were calming.

  25. More from the Mail.

    Justin Trudeau, who has demanded answers for the families of 63 Canadians killed in the crash, said he had ‘intelligence from multiple sources’ pointing to a shoot-down.
    ‘The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile,’ he said, adding that the strike ‘may well have been unintentional’.

    Donald Trump also rejected Iran’s claims of a mechanical fault.

    ‘It was flying in a pretty rough neighborhood. Somebody could have made a mistake,’ Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. ‘I have a feeling that something very terrible happened, very devastating.’

    UK prime minister Boris Johnson said there was ‘now a body of information that the flight was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile’, while France has also offered help with the investigation.

    US intelligence says the Boeing 737 was tracked by satellite data which showed the plane airborne for two minutes before the heat signatures of two surface-to-air missiles.

    Meanwhile, this is what Iran was saying.

    Iran has already rejected the West’s claims, calling them a ‘big lie’ and ‘psychological warfare’.

    ‘It is unfortunate that the psychological operation of the US government and those supporting it are adding insult to the injury of the bereaved families and victimising them for certain goals by propagating such fallacies,’ government spokesman Ali Rabiei said.

    ‘No one will assume responsibility for such a big lie once it is known that the claim had been fraudulent,’ he was quoted as saying by Press TV.

    Ali Abedzadeh, the head of the country’s national aviation department, also denied the allegations today at a news conference in Tehran.

    ‘One thing is for certain, this airplane was not hit by a missile,’ he said.

    ‘If they are really sure, they should come and show their findings to the world’ in accordance with international standards, he added.

    Sometimes you shouldn’t ask a question if you don’t know the answer.
    Maybe I was misled by so many people phrasing it as “an Iranian missile” rather than “two Iranian missiles” — I’ve checked a few more sources I didn’t read before, and the US knew from the beginning there were two, and presenting that evidence may have been what made the mullahs finally admit they were at fault.
    Or at least the IRGC was at fault.
    Or maybe the guys who videoed the explosion.
    Whatever.

  27. I was recalled to active duty after 9/11. To provide intelligence support to force protection. It was a good fit. I trained for that my entire professional career. In fact I trained others to do that.

    Intelligence support to anti/counter terrorism. If anyone thinks I am claiming to be tough I served with jaw dropping tough guys. I was not in the same league.

    I used to brief them. I always ended my briefings by telling them that it wasn’t worth the intel value to bring me a live terrorist if it risked one American life. Be safe. Shoot first.

    It may take me longer. But I can work from the pocket litter.

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